Had a lovely morning walk at the Whittier today. I posted a full e-bird generated list is at the end of this e-mail, but the highlights included first of season (for the area for me) eastern towhees, tree swallows, field sparrows (39!), chipping sparrows (19!), and red-winged blackbirds. Was also happy to see 5 yellow-bellied sapsuckers, 4 yellow-rumped warblers (was hoping for a yellow-throat, but soon enough...) and a slew of flickers. A few b. creepers, juncos, and white-throated sparrows are still hanging around, but probably not for long. The ducks & gulls have pretty much cleared out.
As a side note, I was lucky enough to observe a yellow-bellied sapsucker at my home in Worthignton for three days straight. I get them every spring and fall and they gravitate towards the shagbark hickories (hundreds of well holes). After the flurry of big-year birding last year it was nice to just spend a few hours observing one species (a brilliant male that spent the entire time on one hickory, drilling a few new wells, and periodically visiting the old ones to drink up). Really cool birds. I was curious if the same birds visit my backyard each season (they seem to know to go to the same favorite 3 trees!).
Also, for those of you who work or visit downtown Columbus be sure to "look up" for the peregrine falcons! I was able to view some spectacular flying over the past few days, perhaps some type of courtship displays?
e-bird list
Location: Scioto Audubon Metro Park--Lower Scioto Park
Observation date: 4/7/10
Number of species: 31
Canada Goose 14
Mallard 4
Ring-necked Duck 1
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Great Blue Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 2
Cooper's Hawk 2
Killdeer 2
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 6
American Crow 5
Tree Swallow 10
Carolina Chickadee 7
Brown Creeper 2
American Robin 25
European Starling 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
Eastern Towhee 2
Chipping Sparrow 19
Field Sparrow 39
Song Sparrow 20
White-throated Sparrow 12
Dark-eyed Junco 7
Northern Cardinal 16
Red-winged Blackbird 8
Common Grackle 23
Brown-headed Cowbird 16
American Goldfinch 20
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
|
